Inducing labor -- how did it work out?

[milkmaid]

We gave a heavy bred cow (within a week of calving anyway) Lutalyse on Sunday morning, dex on Tuesday morning (yesterday), for the purpose of getting her to calve by this morning. Hoping for a live calf out of her and then she was getting shipped immediately after (long story). She did calve this morning but the calf died not long after birth. :?

Coincidence?

It's only the second time I've ever dealt with inducing a cow, first time (2 years ago) I think we used ECP rather than Lute, ended up with live, healthy twin heifers.

Any chance that Lute or dexamethasone may have contributed to a weak calf...? For those of you who have induced cows on occasion, any comments on this situation or what have your results been when you did induce labor?

 

[Herefordcross]

I don't care what cow it is we will not induce labor. Aborting calves in heifers is one thing. C section on occasion but, have never induced labor.

 

[randiliana]

We have induced a couple of cows in the past. Both were vaginal prolapsers and we wanted to get the calf out of them before we had to sew them up. Both cows went down the road later in the same year. We were careful to make sure both cows were close to calving (within about 2 -3 weeks) and had no problems with the calves. One of the cows proceeded to fully prolapse a couple of days after she calved but the other was fine. The calves were probably 10-15 lbs lighter than they would have been full term, but both grew quite well and we sold them both at weaning time.

Forgot to add that one time we used Estrumate and Dexamethasone and the other time just Dex.

 

[redfornow]

Induced one this year. AI calf about a week over, checked her and she had a large calf at 270 days, was hoping to wait her out but she wanted to keep the calf I think??

Anyhow MM calf lived couple months old at this point (94 lb bull calf out of a heifer) but was very weak for and took awhile to get him on his feet eating well. I just chalked it up to big dumb calf syndrome, or the hard pull. Could be either or the meds who knows??
To me it was worth it for a live calf and only cost 15 bucks.
If she would have delivered without help, I would have had both dead.
Anyhow sorry about your loss.

MD

 

[milkmaid]

Thanks for the responses, folks. Redfornow -- what meds did you use on her?

 

[Vicky the vet]

I've induced a fair few cattle. I use estrumate and dexamethasone, they calve in 30 hours (book says 40, but the cows can't read...). All calves born have been live, and continued to live. If you induce too early, the lungs may be too immature to allow life. The dexamethasone helps with the surfactant production needed tho.

The biggest problem in my opinion with inducing cattle is that there is a LARGE percentage of retained placentas, vs non-induced cattle. I ensure that the calf is of a size to be induced, and if in normal presentation, I try to feel the head and mouth for teeth to ensure viability. I also prefer that there is colostrum present at the time of induction, but that can come in after induction, if the dam is near term.

 

[redfornow]

This is real scientific but the p one. lol
like pegestrone???
two shots in the butt no BQA was used to late and to tired at that point. Yes I am a bad person and will admit it.
We knew we were in trouble pretty early on, cow just got big as a house and stayed dilated 3 cm for almost a month.
When I checked her at what was supposed to be a month to go she had a BIG calf then, and was having light labor off and on.

Anyhow always have at least one heifer a year that doesnt read the manual as how to get this done so they do it their own way.

For me I would have been happy to just get the heifer alive so the calf was a big bonus.
Have a great one.

MD

 

[angus9259]

Ive induced three or four times. Using estrumate and dex. Never had a problem. Facing a lot of ai calves this year and it looks like i'll be out of town and wondering what to do about it.....

 

[Quigly]

I try to avoid inducing cows whenever possible. I haven't had any terrible experiences with it, but some of my producers have doing it on their own. I am confident I saved a cow this year that was going down hill around calving time and would not have survived had we not induced her. Primarily use Lut and Dex at the same time, I tell producers to expect a calf in 36 hours, plus or minus 6 hours. If they are born sooner then that, I think they were going to calve anyway and the protocol did nothing. Some calves that aren't to term will be aborted if this is done, but in some cases you can use this protocol and nothing happens if the calf isn't far enough along. I've heard of feedlot heifers getting the combination 3 or 4 times over the course of a couple months and still having a normal calf at term.

RPs certainly are a problem, and a big reason I shy away from inducing. It's been reported that putting them on triamcinilone a week prior to calving will reduce the risk. It is almost never that I know I am going to induce a cow a week before the fact. I usually just tell people to watch them and have some exceed handy.

Lastly, I know of one or two producers with ET calves that induce a number of animals each year. They have exact calving dates and therefore can time things well. They work during the week and induce everything to calve at noon on Saturday so they are around to assist and seem to get by.

 

[milkmaid]

Haha... 2006 to 2015 is nine years since that original post. How did that get brought back to the top??

 

[Alan]

Haha... 2006 to 2015 is nine years since that original post. How did that get brought back to the top??

:lol: :lol: I was going to ask if they realized it was a nine year old post, but thought I would be nice. :hide:

Are still in the Seattle area? Where is the next stop?

 

[milkmaid]

Currently in east Idaho, Alan. I move to southern Idaho and start work on Monday. Sorry didn't get back to you.... I don't understand how the second half of fourth year was crazier than the first half. I went Ridgefield to Seattle to Pullman and was there until graduation last month. I planned to take some time off before starting my new job, but somehow that didn't happen... I ought to just own it and say I don't do free time well. lol. I'm sure I'll drift back toward Washington someday and will have to meet up with you. Next time I'll give you more advance notice too!

 

[Alan]

Currently in east Idaho, Alan. I move to southern Idaho and start work on Monday. Sorry didn't get back to you.... I don't understand how the second half of fourth year was crazier than the first half. I went Ridgefield to Seattle to Pullman and was there until graduation last month. I planned to take some time off before starting my new job, but somehow that didn't happen... I ought to just own it and say I don't do free time well. lol. I'm sure I'll drift back toward Washington someday and will have to meet up with you. Next time I'll give you more advance notice too!

I look forward to meeting you down the road.

 

[angus9259]

I find myself in a conundrum this year as the families annual vacation aligns with when a group of calves are due ai - my own mis read so. These cows are confirmed due on 8/13 ai based on when I bred and preg checked and I am considering inducing a week early so I don't have any dead calves greeting me on my return from vacation. As I said, I have done it several times myself without issues - but was doing a search on the subject and there was the thread so I was looking to get the conversation going again. My wife says I never give enough detail when I talk so this is probably a good example of that.....

All that said, any new opinions on this? I've never had retained placenta when I've done it in the past - how do you diagnose that and deal with it? Another shot of lut in 10 days???